Local health insurer offers instant, accurate, and secure smartphone payments to members

January 14, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. – Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon will now offer members a mobile application called Wellero™ that allows them to pay for health care services before leaving their provider’s office.

“Regence is excited to partner with Wellero in offering our members state-of-the-art technology that makes costs more easily understandable and clearer up front,” said Regence Medical Director Dr. Richard Popiel. “So far 400 members in Oregon and Idaho have signed up during our pilot period, and now we are excited to offer this service to all of our members enrolled in our commercial products in the coming months.”

Wellero is available to members free of charge, and offers them multiple benefits that will help them predict and better manage their health care costs:

Wellero is offered free of charge as an iOS and Android mobile app

Wellero’s app is completely HIPAA and PCI compliant.

There are no surprise bills in the mail later. Members leave each office visit with no outstanding payments or bills. Some members may even receive a prompt-pay discount from participating providers.

Costs are transparent to the member up front.

“We are excited to partner with progressive health plans like Regence to revolutionize the health care payment system,” said Hanny Freiwat, Wellero’s president and co-founder. “Wellero is committed to changing the relationship between providers and consumers. Partners like Regence, who are willing to help both the provider and the consumer have an intelligent dialogue about cost, are essential to our success. We believe Wellero can help lower health care costs for all by reducing providers’ billing and eligibility verification cost, educating consumers with true price transparency, and enabling our members to navigate a very complex industry more effectively.”

Regence members can download the Wellero app for free. The app is easy for health providers to use as there is no need to purchase any new software or equipment. Instead, the consumer’s smartphone accesses the Wellero system directly for ease of use. The Wellero app is now available in the Apple App Store™ and in Google Play®.

“We partnered with Wellero because we saw the need to provide the tools that made clear the member’s out of pocket cost at the time of service,” said Dr. Popiel. Wellero currently has several providers signed up in Oregon. Wellero is currently inviting additional health care providers in the Regence network to join at no cost to offer their patients streamlined mobile-pay technology.

Benefits to Regence Health Care Providers Utilizing Wellero:

Consumer copay and coinsurance are collected at the time of the service.

Wellero checks the consumer’s insurance eligibility at the time of service, saving the provider administrative time and effort.

Wellero reduces claims paperwork and billing errors for medical providers by applying health plan clinical editing rules at the time of the service, which can increase administrative efficiencies and reduce lost revenue from rejected claims.

There are no monthly subscription fees or equipment and no software integration costs. Wellero gets paid only when payments are collected from the consumer.

Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon is a leading health plan in Oregon, with nearly 750,000 members, offering health, life and dental insurance. Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon is a nonprofit independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, and is affiliated with Regence BlueShield of Idaho, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah and Regence BlueShield (selected counties in Washington). Together, the companies serve more than two million members in the Northwest/Intermountain Region. The Regence affiliated companies are committed to improving the health of its members and communities, and to transforming the health care system. For more information, please visit www.regence.com or www.twitter.com/RegenceOregon.

About Wellero™

Wellero™ is part of the Cambia Health Solutions family of companies. Wellero puts a powerful retail healthcare application in the consumer's pocket. This cloud based mobile point of sale solution gives consumers access to the information they need to complete healthcare payments and transactions at the time of service. To learn more, visit www.Wellero.com.